Unilever is hoping to close the missing link between on and offline visits and sales after

awarding start-up Glimr a $50,000 prize to pilot with one of its brands.

The world’s second largest advertiser today crowned the start-up, which lets brands

build a one-to-one relationship with consumers using offline data collected from

beacons, the winner of its Scale Up competition during a session at Digital Shoreditch

2015.

Unilever Foundry director Jeremy Basset explained to The Drum why Glimr, which

competed against fellow tech entrepreneurs Little Bird and Wobe to win the prize, will

help Unilever better understand its consumers' habits.

“I think what is exciting about Glimr is the way they allow us to fuse the virtual and the

physical world,” he said. “They enable us to connect with consumers though beacon

technology in more of a pull way than a push way, which I think is unique for beacons. I

think in that way it has a lot of relevance to Unilever, not only in the UK but in many

countries around the world.”

Basset said the technology could potentially be used in its out-of-home business, for

example ice cream and refreshments, but has the potential to be used across the full

spectrum of the business.

Glimr chief executive Robert Hedberg added that the company’s technology will help

Unilever understand consumers as individuals.

“We are hoping to bring an actual understating of who you are as an individual based on

what stores you visit and help Unilever understand their target audience in a much

better way –  so for the first time bridging the offline and online gap.”